Sense of Security
by foundoutaboutyou
Summary: Two years after the events of Corrupts Absolutely, the team has grown up and moved on with their lives. Unfortunately, another situation involving the Midnight Channel crops up. This time, disturbingly, the victims are young teenagers. Character crossover with Jude Mathis from Tales of Xillia. Story 2 of the Endless Mystery series, x-posted from Ao3. Eventual Jude/Yosuke.
1. Time

_time will ask, time will fly,  
>time will give you wings like a butterfly...<em>

**January 2nd, 2015**

The snow always reminded Yosuke of Inaba. It wasn't like he was light years away, no, but something about looking out the window of his seventh story apartment, something about the clean, white sheet on the ground made him wistful. _It's not like you couldn't just jump on your car and go,_ he thought to himself, chuckling a little. _You do it every friggin' morning._ Okay. So, maybe his wistfulness wasn't so much for the place. He saw enough of it to make that unnecessary. It was more for a time. A simpler time. Back in high school, when things _weren't_ decided. Back before the murders.

He shook his head to push that thought away. More than two years had passed without incident. Sometimes he wondered if it Souji admitting that he had an accomplice was just his way of trying to make them all doubt themselves even more. Every now and then, though, he found himself thinking back to that time. There were so many things that he still wanted to know. So many answers he still wanted. Souji was in jail now; if he _really_ wanted those answers, he could visit and get them easily.

_Stop,_ he thought. _Stop thinking about that. You were thinking about Inaba. Go back to that._

Okina was so different from Inaba. Everything there felt more drastic, more serious. More final, maybe. _Can you imagine living in a big city?_ he asked himself. _If you think Okina's different..._ Or maybe it was just Yosuke himself who was different. He'd lived in the city not _too_ long ago, but back then he'd been a teenager. Everything had seemed more exciting. Now, though... now it was just a city. Just buildings and asphalt and people. Maybe it was because it was so close to Inaba. Maybe it was because he still _went_ to Inaba every day for work. It was still nice, though, living outside of the sleepy town. Getting to _leave_ the no-action place every day after work instead of just taking his bike back to his parents house was kind of rewarding. A symbol of his adulthood, maybe.

Two years had passed. So much had changed and so much was the same. Life, in general, felt the same. No, he didn't go to school in the morning, but now he was working full-time hours at Junes, as his dad's assistant manager. It probably would have felt like a lot more responsibility, if he didn't already do most of it before he was out of high school. The only thing that was different now was the fact that he actually _wrote_ the schedule that people complained about.

And that was what he was doing. Or... what he should have been doing. He sat at the kitchen table, pencil in hand and eyes half on the window. Just because he had the holiday off didn't mean that he actually had the _whole_ time to himself. Tearing his eyes away from the window and looking back at the schedule in front of him, he scribbled another couple of names in. _Asuka-chan said she wanted Thursday off, so I'll trade her with Taka-kun, and then put Nozomi-kun on Saturday and Sunday._

Finally, his focus was on the task at hand, when he heard the sound of a thump on the door. Almost immediately, his attention was snapped. Not that he had a whole ton of focus to begin with. "It's open!" he called.

"Need you to come open the door for me!" an all-too-familiar voice called from the other side of the door.

Living with Jude had a lot of advantages. There was the obvious advantage of splitting the rent, but there were other advantages, too. Jude cooked and did most of the cleaning, and they carpooled to Inaba together when their schedules coincided—Jude's parents had bent more than a few rules to get him a job at Inaba Municipal as a nurse's assistant—but the biggest benefit was not living alone. Yosuke didn't really like being alone, and the only time he really _was_ alone were the days that he had off and Jude had to work. Today was one of those days, so he was beyond glad that his roommate was home.

Yosuke had a smile on his face as he pushed his chair back and stood up. "What am I, your slave?" he asked, his tone completely jovial as he made his way to the front door of the apartment.

He heard Jude laugh from the other side of the door and his smile quirked up a little higher in response. When he pulled the door open, he saw a Junes bag in his friend's hand and tilted his head. But he didn't get too far. Yosuke stepped around him and peered into the bag.

Jude laughed again. "What are you, twelve?" he asked.

"Feast!" Yosuke said excitedly with his nose in the bag. _Damn. He bought all the makings for sushi, sashimi, omlete with fried rice, ramen, tempura and curry rice..._ The pile of food had a very obvious reason. Yosuke knew full well what that reason was. "So, what army are _you_ feeding?" Just because he knew the answer didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun and ask the question.

With a laugh, Jude walked to the kitchen and set the paper bag on the table. "You _are_ an army, Yosuke." After a short pause, he shrugged. "But I'm just preparing for tomorrow."

Yosuke jutted his lip out in an exaggerated pout. "Y-you mean... all of this is for tomorrow?" he asked, pretending to be offended and disappointed.

Jude crossed his arms at his chest. "Yes. All of it." He pulled the fridge open, starting to put things away.

Standing by the bag, Yosuke frowned as he pulled a couple of things out to put away. "Really? All of it?" he asked, staring at the curry powder in Jude's hand.

With a sigh, Jude rolled his eyes and gave a playful grin. "_Except_ the curry, Yosuke. That's for dinner tonight." He let the wry little grin take over his face.

Honestly, Yosuke knew that. But it was still fun to play around every once in awhile. That was one of the things that he liked the most about Jude. For a short time, he would pretend to be serious about keeping secrets, but then he would break down and tell Yosuke everything. "You're the best." A beaming smile spread across his face. "But really," Yosuke said, "why'd you bring everything home early? I thought we were going shopping tomorrow morning, before everyone gets here." Not that he minded. If he didn't have to go to Junes or any other grocery store over his few days off, he would die a happy man whenever his life eventually ended.

Jude shrugged. "Rise called me earlier," he explained. "She and Teddie are getting in from Osaka tonight. They just finished filming their new season and they were going to wait until tomorrow when everyone else, but apparently Rise really can't wait to be with everyone again." He smiled. "So, they're going to stay here until the fourth, and then go back to Inaba with everyone else, to stay at Rise's grandmother's place until their press tour in March."

And that was Yosuke's favorite thing about their group of friends. No matter what happened, they always made time for each other. Since high school, they'd all gone their separate ways. Chie was training in the police academy, with the eventual goal to work under Dojima-san on the force. Yukiko was still working to take over the Amagi Inn, and she spent most of her off time at Chie's apartment a few blocks away. Although it surprised absolutely no one, the two of them "officially" revealed their relationship to the group almost a year ago. Naoto did a lot of detective work that took her all over the place; she'd garnered more respect after Souji got sent to jail. He always kind of figured that it was a bitter feeling to her, but she never really said anything about it. Unlike most of the others, she and Kanji had grown apart after high school. Kanji was still in Inaba, fresh out of high school and working with his mother in their shop. He didn't really talk a lot about the new friends he'd made, but all of the others were concerned about him regressing back to the way he'd been before they met him.

And then there were Rise and Teddie. Rise went back to work as an idol. She did the whole singing-and-dancing thing on the side, sure, but with Teddie's support, she went to try out for a new sitcom that an upstart writer put together. At the tryouts, the casting directors had loved Teddie so much that they cast him instantly, to play alongside Rise as her on-screen love interest. Honestly, it seemed like it was good for her, having Teddie close to her like he was. Having the link to home kept her grounded, and having Rise with him kept Teddie excited.

"Guess it's a good thing I washed the guest sheets, then, huh?" They'd prepared for this for weeks now. Last year, their meet-up had been at the Amagi Inn. This year, since the inn was bustling, their options were really limited to Jude and Yosuke's apartment and Chie's apartment. Since Chie's place was too small, it defaulted to them.

Jude chuckled. "I'm glad you remembered. I was going to call and remind you, but..." he trailed off.

Yosuke knew what that meant, too. He'd been on a date. Honestly, Yosuke knew that he went on dates. It had been two years since they revealed their feelings for one another, and Yosuke often cursed himself for adding that 'don't hold yourself in stasis' thing. Because of that, they'd never been single at the same time. Jude had dated a couple of guys, Yosuke had dated a couple of guys _and_ a couple of girls... and things never really matched up. Okay, that wasn't entirely true. They did sometimes. But on the rare occasions that they _did_ match up... well, Yosuke was just as much of a coward as he had been in high school. Sometimes, he could swear that he picked up hints of those same feelings when Jude looked at him. He knew, of course, that _he_ still had the same feelings. But... _but two years later and a little bomb drop from Souji still has you doubting everything. You really are pathetic._

And he didn't want to admit it, but there was a part of him that felt like Jude was the reason a lot of his relationships didn't work out. What was it his shadow had called it? A fixation? Two years had passed and it was still pretty damn strong. It didn't matter who he tried to date—and he _had_ tried, really—he'd rather spend his time with Jude. He felt more comfortable, more at home with him. He wondered if Jude realized how much he was ruining other men or women for him.

Mentally shaking himself out of his thoughts, he looked at Jude. "Eiko, right?" he asked. It was his fault things were so awkward when they talked about this. He couldn't let Jude feel it, too. "He stopped in to see you after work? I was wondering why you were a little late." He pushed his hair back from his eyes. It was a little long. Maybe he'd have to cut it.

"Mmm," Jude hummed and looked down. "And then we spent about fifteen minutes arguing about how I had to cancel on him tonight because Rise and Teddie were showing up. I decided, if he can't understand that, well. You know."

It was hard to stop the little grin that Yosuke felt spreading across his face, and he found himself incredibly grateful that his back was turned. Okay. It was probably wrong to be excited about things not working out for Jude, but the little feeling of victory—or maybe relief?—that he felt bubbling up in his chest was hard to ignore. A little protective part of him was certain that none of the people Jude dated were good enough for him, anyway. "That's a shame." He sounded convincing, right?

Jude closed the refrigerator and took out a few pots and pans, getting ready to make dinner. "I guess. I mean, it's disappointing, but if he can't understand that I was excited to see my friends who only come into town once a year?" He paused and laughed. "You know, I still don't think he believes that I know Rise. One of those 'just because you lived in Inaba doesn't mean you knew her' things, I think. Forget that he knows that my parents' clinic is right down the street from her grandmother's tofu shop." He sounded more than a little bit annoyed.

With a chuckle, Yosuke shrugged. "And forget that she mentioned all of us in that one interview." He reached into the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of soda, cracking one open and setting it in front of Jude. He sat on a stool, his back facing the counter and his eyes on Jude. "So, do you know when Rise and Ted will be here?"

Shrugging, Jude stepped over to the rice cooker and started it. "Rise called me when they left this morning, and it'll take them about nine hours to get here from Osaka. But I'm willing to bet that Rise got distracted shopping and Teddie just indulged her." He chuckled softly, starting the stove to mix the curry sauce together.

"Those two are a dangerous pair," Yosuke said, sipping from his soda bottle and then resting his elbows on the table behind him.

Jude smirked. "No more dangerous than Chie and Yukiko when they put their minds to it." He paused, thinking for a second, and then shook his head no. "Okay, that's totally a lie, but you can't blame me for trying to stick up for them, can you?" He turned his back from the stove and leaned against the counter, facing Yosuke and smirking.

The smirk made Yosuke's own mouth quirk upward, and his stomach knot. "I could, but I don't," he said seriously. "Not wise to blame the hand that feeds you, right?" He winked and ran a hand through his hair.

"Especially not one who has medical knowledge and knows what you're allergic to." Jude wagged his eyebrows playfully, and if he was even slightly menacing, Yosuke might have been afraid. But Jude wasn't scary. Not in the conventional ways.

Yosuke chuckled. "Unless that particular medically knowledgeable, allergy-knowing person is the type of person who always feels guilty when he has to kill a spider or gets all up-in-arms at certain episodes of certain crime dramas," he teased, giving Jude a significant look. There was about as much risk of Jude hurting him as there was the earth collapsing into a black hole. _You know that. So why..._ his brain teased him. He knew why. _Or at least you think you know that._ Still... he wondered if Jude still thought of back in the day, when they almost got together. Or if he _did_ think of it, how he felt about it.

"Raincloud." Jude's voice permeated the silence, and made Yosuke's eyes snap up from where they'd fallen on the floor.

With a chuckle, Yosuke shook his head no. "Not a raincloud, no. More like... a strong breeze. I was thinking." He pushed a hand through his hair. _I really need to cut you,_ he thought to his hair.

Without missing a beat, Jude said, "I _thought_ you looked sick." His voice was teasing. "What were you thinking about?" he asked.

Having him this comfortable around Yosuke was a real night and day change from how he'd been when they first met. Two years ago, when they were still tiptoeing around each other like thieves sneaking around at night, Jude _never_ would have made a joke at Yosuke's expense. And he never would have asked outright what Yosuke was thinking about. Hearing the question was nice, though. He definitely didn't mind. _Maybe..._ he thought, _maybe it's okay to tell him._

But as soon as he opened his mouth to speak, there was a rhythmic knock on the door. "Hell-_ooo_!" a familiar voice came clearly from the other side of the door. "It's so quiet out here in this hallway! I'm bear-ly clinging to sanity out here!" Two years, and Teddie still hadn't let go of those bear puns.

"Teddie!" Rise laughed a little bit. "Your jokes are going to make them leave us out here in the cold. Jude-kun, Yosuke-kun, you in there? I think I heard you!" she called into the apartment.

Yosuke looked at Jude, both lamenting and decidedly _not_ lamenting the end of the prior conversation. "Rain check?" he asked.

Jude half-smiled. "What is it with us and talking about rain?" he asked, in lieu of an affirmative or negative response. Like he knew that the rain check was indefinite, without even knowing what Yosuke was going to say. It was astounding how well he knew Yosuke sometimes. He turned back toward the stove wordlessly, and started working on the curry sauce.

The smile on his face faltered for a second. If the situation wasn't so fucked up; if _he_ wasn't so fucked up... they really could be great together.


	2. Home

Two years, and Jude _still_ wasn't used to having a big group of friends like this. Friends who visited every year; friends who called every week and texted every day. Friends who greeted each other with hugs like the ones that he'd just received from Teddie and Rise. She gave an eager growl into the hug, and Jude smirked a little bit. Yosuke followed up with a joke about her spending too much time with Teddie, the way she was growling and giving bear hugs, and the group of them devolved into laughter.

The friendship he had with Rise Kujikawa was unlike a lot of the others he'd had in his life. She was really more sister than friend. When he'd just moved to town, after Chie had bombarded him with questions, Rise was the first one to _really_ befriend him. He was sure that initially, it was partially because of convenience; they lived a few buildings away from each other, after all. But it didn't take long for them to become close. Rise had known, before anyone else, about his sexuality and about his crush on Yosuke. She had known, and she'd kept his secret; let it come out on its own time. It had been a similar situation with Kanji, and even still, he was the one who Kanji contacted the most of the entire group. Now, though... now it was nearly impossible to pick a best friend out of all of them (not that he really needed to). Nearly. His eyes slid over to Yosuke, where he helped Teddie set the table around the couch and recliners for dinner. The time he and Yosuke had spent together since high school had easily slotted him into that position alongside Rise.

"You might want to add another spot to the table," Jude told Yosuke and Teddie with a little chuckle, as he closed his phone. "Naoto will be here in about ten minutes."

Yosuke chuckled a little bit. "Sudden visits without planning ahead? That doesn't sound like the Naoto of old," he mused as he went to the kitchen and grabbed another plate, and another set of chopsticks. Luckily, they were prepared for all the sudden changes and pitfalls that inevitably seemed to crop up when they all got together.

Rise made a hissing sound and bit her lip. "I think I was supposed to tell Jude earlier, but I forgot." She gave an innocent smile and grabbed the pan from the stove. "I was texting him from this cute little shop where Teddie and I got all of your souvenirs, and I got kinda distracted." After shrugging one shoulder, she relaxed and breathed in. "Jude, this smells _amazing_!" she said seriously.

Jude didn't think a whole lot about his own cooking. It was a skill he'd picked up when he was younger, because his parents always worked late nights at the hospital back before they'd moved. He was used to eating his own food, so it was kind of old hat to him. But all of his friends seemed to like it so much that he was always relegated to cooking duty whenever they got together... not to mention every other day when Yosuke got home. Not that he minded in the slightest. He liked being able to contribute in his little way.

"It's just curry rice," he said with a little chuckle.

Teddie shrugged his shoulders. "It's better than what we ate on the set. Those caterers were trying to stretch my fur out with the food they bought!" He made a gesture with his arms, like he was widening his body.

Sighing in feigned exasperation, Rise rolled her eyes and looked at the ceiling. "It wasn't _all_ for you, Teddie, geez." She put her hands on her hips, but behind the exasperated expression, Jude could see a smile clearly on her face. "We had some Italian catering at one of our shoots and Teddie ate almost the whole lasagna himself. Like when he ate Yukiko's ramen that one time."

Giving a shocked face, Teddie shook his head no. "It's not my fault! It was so delicious that I couldn't stop. It was primal instinct! Yosuke, you know what I'm talking about, right?" He turned to Yosuke expectantly.

Yosuke's eyes were incredulous, and he shook his head no. "Don't look at me, dude. I always told you that one day your special brand of weird would catch up to you. Should've learned some human mannerisms when you had the chance," he shrugged dismissively.

But Rise shook her head no. "He's actually doing really well. We crafted a backstory for him. As far as anyone at the studio is concerned, he's from America. We've been working on his English, and no one's really the wiser about his past." Literally, no one. Not even them.

Jude had been talking a lot with Naoto recently, and sometimes, in their spare time, they'd look into shadows and what made them the way they were. Jude would occasionally use his position and Teddie's permission to get a look at his medical records, but nothing had changed over time, at all. His x-rays were literally a blur and he never so much as got a sniffle. It was fortunate, Jude supposed, because if he _did_ get sick, what could they do when he had literally no visible anatomy?

"I'm glad you guys are doing so well out there. Teddie, you're a way better actor than we ever imagined you'd be," Yosuke said honestly, as he sat down in his comfortable chair.

With a prideful smile, Teddie nodded his head. "It's just playing pretend!" he said seriously. "When I get carried away, Rise coaches me and the next scene is always right out of the park!" The eager excitement Teddie showed was comforting. Like a reminder of old times.

Just as Jude was about to sit down, he heard three knocks on the door and chuckled. "I've got it," he called to his friends and walked over to the door, pulling it open. He smiled at Naoto as soon as she came into view. "Naoto!" he said excitedly.

Much to his surprise, the woman who had always been known for her love of privacy reached out and pulled him to her in a hug. Honestly, he shouldn't have been terribly surprised, though. Time had matured them all. Naoto was still extremely professional most of the time, but when they were together as friends, as a small family like this, she was far more willing to do things like hug and smile than she used to be. A far cry from the uptight Naoto of old. She credited it to their friendship and how it was affecting her, but Jude figured it was just her own maturity.

"Jude, it's so good to see you!" He could hear the smile in her voice when she spoke, and it made him smile in response. "It seems like it's been far more than a few months."

Rise beamed at them. "Hi, Naoto!" she practically squealed as she hopped out of her seat on the couch to hug her, too. "Oh my gosh, you look so pretty! This is the most dressed up I've ever seen you!" she said honestly.

It wasn't really dressy attire; the most notable difference from how Naoto used to dress was the fact that she didn't take the extra effort to tape her chest down anymore, and how she allowed her hair to grow a little bit further than just wrapping her face. Maturity, as well as encouragement from _all_ of them, had afforded her the confidence to let go of her qualms and accept who she was.

"Th-thank you..." Naoto stumbled, and from where he was standing behind Rise, he saw the red painting her face. Okay, so she'd let go of _most_ of her qualms.

But, Rise either didn't notice or care how embarrassed she was. "Seriously, Naoto, your hair looks so pretty longer! Why didn't you wear it like that all along?" The answer was well known among them, but Rise, as ever, wasn't afraid to delve into uncomfortable topics.

After she said her hellos, and carefully averted too many questions from Rise, Naoto stepped into the living room and set her bag down on the floor. "Sorry, by the way. I was going to wait until tomorrow to come by with everyone else, but the informant I was supposed to be meeting never showed up, so-"

Yosuke cut her off with a warm smile and shook his head no. "We're glad. You guys know that all you need to do is tell us and you can come here whenever." He looked at Jude, and Jude nodded his agreement.

"That's actually half the reason we got such a big living room. So that between the couch and the floor, there would be room for as many of you as happenstance brought by at once," Jude explained. This was the first time it had actually happened that way, and it wasn't happenstance's responsibility, no, but now they knew.

Laughing sheepishly, Naoto nodded and ducked her head. "That's good to know, because this case could bring me to Okina a lot. That's actually a part of why I'm here tonight. I was in town looking into something, and..." she trailed off. "Sleeping on your couch will inevitably be a lot cheaper than staying at a hotel. And a lot better on gas than driving back to Inaba every night." She smiled an easy smile, quickly changing the subject from her current case.

Curiosity had Jude (and from a cursory glance around the room, everyone else) wondering about what she was looking into, but he knew, as he was sure the rest of them did, that Naoto would never tell them what her case was about. She couldn't. Not unless it involved something about the other side. But the fact that she looked away and went completely quiet told Jude that wasn't the case. Still, that didn't change the curiosity in the slightest.

Teddie, seeming to pick up on that fact, gave a big smile and spoke up. "Not to mention the food's a lot better!" he said excitedly, half in the conversation, half-staring at the food on the table.

Everyone laughed, and Naoto looked at the table, too. "I think that's Teddie-speak for I'm hungry, so let's go and eat before he decides to act in character with his species," she joked.

Yosuke rolled his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. "Oh god, Naoto, don't encourage the bear jokes!" he said, half-serious.

And just like that, the five of them fell into easy conversation like they hadn't been away from each other for months. Having his friends, his dysfunctional little family so close to him like this; offering _his_ personal space (well, his and Yosuke's, anyway) to them so openly and having them make themselves at home for real... this was _really_ what home felt like. Not with his parents, but with people who _really_ accepted him for who he was, even with all his faults.

_Yeah, I could get used to this._

* * *

><p>Everyone was settled in now, so much so that Rise actually fell asleep against Teddie's shoulder on the couch. The food was completely gone, and the dishes were mostly cleaned, save for the pots and pans which he could do tomorrow morning, before everyone else got into town. After handing Naoto her rollout mattress pad, Jude headed down the hall to his bedroom, completely content to go and watch some TV before he fell asleep. That was, until he passed by Yosuke's room. Maybe it was the excitement of the day, but Jude found himself loathe to go to sleep yet. For a second, he wondered if Yosuke was feeling the same, if he was still awake in there or if he'd just fallen to the pillow and immediately fallen asleep. He did that sometimes. Jude would pass by, see his light on and hear nothing coming from the room and see him completely passed out, face down on the bed. It occurred to him once in a while that maybe he should knock first, but it had never backfired yet. If he happened to catch Yosuke awake, he'd just say goodnight. Sometimes it ended with him going to his own room, but sometimes, Yosuke would invite him in. If he wasn't awake, though, Jude would take the spare blanket on the foot of his bed and cover him over.<p>

Tonight, though... he heard the sound of Yosuke's television on the other side of the door. His hand was in a fist, ready to knock, but he thought better of it. Up until this recent vacation, Yosuke had been completely exhausted. Anyone could see it. He worked harder than most anyone at Junes, so it wasn't surprising that he was so tired. If Jude kept him busy, he wouldn't be able to catch up on all that sleep he lost, and Jude remembered what happened _last_ time he was sleep-deprived like that.

It had only been two years ago, but sometimes it seemed like a lifetime. So much had happened so quickly. No sooner had he learned about the TV world, than he was thrown into a whirlwind mystery, that (seemingly) ended with all of his friends completely devastated by the news that someone they'd trusted implicitly had betrayed them all along. Their recovery had taken a long time, not that he didn't understand. It felt like they'd walked around in a devastated funk for months after Souji went to jail. Jude expected it, as soon as the news came to light, but it didn't change the fact that it made him feel terrible that there was nothing he could do about it.

And it had definitely been nice when, one by one, they started coming out of it. Ironically, the first one to come back to her old self was Rise. But really, Jude hadn't been as surprised as the others probably were about that. She was a lot stronger than people gave her credit for. The way she dealt with Souji's betrayal, even before the rest of the group realized how grand it had been, was admirable. She'd been strong, faced it with a brave face, but Jude and Teddie, and sometimes Kanji, had seen her at her darker points. When she would see something that reminded her of Souji and start crying. It had been at her insistence, though, that they were the only ones to see her that way. It was harder on everyone else, she said.

It had taken Yosuke the longest to get back to his old self. No one was surprised at that, honestly. The bomb that he dropped in Yosuke's brain, the reminder that you couldn't truly know anyone's intentions; there was nothing crueler that Souji could have said at the moment, because he was the actual proof of its truth. Jude had assumed that it was his way of assuring that he'd haunt the group for years to come. And for the most part, it had worked, especially when it came to things between Jude and Yosuke.

The promise not to hold himself in stasis had been both easy and difficult to make. He didn't want to be the guy who lay there pining every night for someone he couldn't have. But the reasons he'd given to Yosuke for wanting to wait to get together had been solid. They hadn't known each other for long at the time. He had definitely been right about one thing; it gave them a chance to grow as friends. But sometimes he wondered if Yosuke even remembered. Sometimes he wondered if his friend even _thought_ about how close they'd gotten to actually being together back in high school.

There were times when he thought he saw that familiar glint in Yosuke's eye, but every time it happened, it disappeared quickly. It was hard, dating other people when the one he knew he really wanted was just a couple of rooms away. It was even _harder_ watching Yosuke date twice as many people... people that Jude didn't think were even _close_ to good enough for him. The hardest part of all, though, was not knowing; was the big question mark over his head when it came to thinking about Yosuke's feelings; was _knowing_ his own feelings.

Over time, his feelings had definitely changed, but not in the way feelings usually did over time. It was both cruel and kind living with Yosuke. On the one hand, they were closer than they'd ever been; closer than Jude had ever really been with _anyone_. But on the other hand, well... living so close to the person that Jude was almost positive that he was in love with? That was beyond unfair. _You definitely need to stop thinking about this..._ he thought. _You're going to drive yourself insane. Yosuke promised to talk to you if things change. So... he will._ Right?

It was only at that moment that he realized that he'd been standing in front of Yosuke's door for at least five minutes now. Shaking his head hard to snap himself out of his train of thought, he started to walk away.

He made it two steps before he heard the door click open behind him. "You know, I saw your shadow underneath the door just standing there, and I was waiting for you to knock." Jude could hear Yosuke's whisper clearly in the hallway.

Jude jumped and turned around, quirking an awkward grin. His cheeks heated up and he pressed his lips together, before finally speaking up. "Sorry. Got lost in thought and then I decided I didn't want to bother you." He pushed his hair back from his eyes.

"You're not bothering me. I can't sleep anyway." As soon as Yosuke finished talking, they heard a mumbling noise coming from the living room—possibly in Teddie's voice—and they both laughed softly in response. The ridiculousness of how it sounded was easily looked over by how happy they were that their friends were back with them. "Why don't you come in? I was just channel surfing, but I came across one of those classic movies you like. We can watch it while we wait to get tired."

For a split second, Jude considered turning him down. His mind was too much of a roller coaster for it to be a good idea for them to do this tonight. But it wasn't like it was an uncommon occurrence. When they couldn't sleep, they always did things like this; watched movies together or just sat and talked when nothing was on TV. If he wanted to keep things normal, not let on that his brain was a train wreck about their non-situation, then he needed to be normal.

"Alright," Jude finally responded, turning around and walking into Yosuke's room. He just hoped he didn't do anything idiotic, like fall asleep in Yosuke's bed or something.


	3. Spark

**January 3rd, 2015**

Yosuke wasn't exactly sure when he'd fallen asleep, but he was definitely sure that it was at least a half hour after Jude had fallen asleep. It probably would have been easy enough to wake Jude up, or even to get a spare blanket from his closet and crash on the floor for the night. But a small portion of his brain, a masochistic part, had completely overtaken his sense and convinced him to just sleep in his bed. Next to Jude. Nothing happened, no, but no matter how many times they stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching movies, the visitor was always careful to leave before he fell asleep.

Between the two of them, Jude was the last one he expected to break that trend. It didn't matter, though. It wasn't like falling asleep in the same bed was a sordid affair to remember. _Not that you'll forget it any time soon,_ his brain teased.

When Yosuke woke up at around ten a.m., Jude wasn't awake yet. Maybe he should have done something, woken him up, but it wasn't common for Jude to sleep in anymore. Usually, Jude was out the door before Yosuke even woke up in the morning, since he needed to be to work at six, so the fact that he was actually allowing himself to sleep in? Yosuke couldn't bring himself to ruin that.

Gently closing the door, he walked out into the living room, and was both surprised and not surprised to see that everyone was awake. Teddie was watching TV, Rise was reading a magazine and Naoto was typing something on her laptop... and a stack of pancakes sat on the counter. They looked normal. _I just hope Naoto made them..._ he mused inwardly.

"Morning, Yosuke!" Teddie's cheerful voice rang throughout the room when he spotted Yosuke from the corner of his eye. "Naoto made banana pancakes!"

With a sigh of relief, which elicited a glare from Rise, Yosuke walked over to the counter to get himself a plate. "Thanks, Naoto," he said. She didn't miss a beat on her laptop when she nodded and smiled. "So, have any of you heard from Chie, Yukiko or Kanji yet?" They hadn't really set a time, but knowing Chie, she was probably shoving Yukiko out the door. Kanji would get there whenever he felt like it. That was just how he worked.

Teddie nodded excitedly. "Yuki-chan texted Rise right before you came out here. They're on the road and they just passed Moel, so they should be about fifteen minutes," he said with a mouthful of pancake.

With a slightly anxious, apprehensive look on her face, Naoto spoke up. "Kanji-kun said that he's going to leave as soon as he fills up his motorcycle, so they'll probably get here around the same time." It wasn't until right then that he realized... Naoto was actually wearing makeup. With a hard blink, he tilted his head in surprise at her.

But Naoto blushed and looked away. Rise looked up from her magazine with a beaming smirk on her face. "Oh! You noticed?" she asked excitedly. "Naoto wanted to get all made up for Kanji! She hasn't seen him at all since last year, so..." With a shrug, Rise peered down at her magazine again. "I helped her while you guys were still zonked out."

"Rise..." Naoto's voice was very obviously embarrassed by the whole situation.

It was amusing that, two years later, she was still under the assumption that no one knew about the unresolved feelings between her and Kanji. For an ace detective, though, she still needed a lot of work with hiding her emotions. Yosuke found himself smirking in spite of the situation. Some personality aspects stuck around forever.

Yosuke sat at the counter to eat, and no sooner had his fork hit the plate when Rise stood up and turned around excitedly. "_I'm_ gonna go get Jude. He'll be bummed if he misses when the others get here!" she said seriously. And without another word, he started down the hallway, toward Jude's room.

Wincing, because he knew exactly where Rise's mind would go, he chewed on his lip. "He's not in his room, Rise..." he muttered quietly. "He's in mine." His voice was quiet, but still above a whisper.

The whole room went quiet, and he could almost hear Rise put on the breaks from around the corner. Yosuke blinked and looked away from the three pairs of eyes that were on him. Teddie's expression was shocked, Naoto's was expectant, and he couldn't see Rise's right away. But as soon as he found himself wondering, she peered back around the corner with a significant look on her face.

"Oh-ho!" Rise exclaimed. "You mean you-"

Yosuke shook his head no, cutting her off before she was able to put any ideas in Teddie's head. God knows, if he got the wrong idea, they'd never hear the end of it. "Nothing like that!" he insisted, his face heating up as he looked down at his plate. "It wasn't!" He blushed deeper against the doubtful glances his friends were giving him. "We couldn't sleep, so... so Jude came in and watched movies with me. And he just fell asleep and..." he trailed off. "S-stop looking at me like that!"

As expected, Naoto was the first one to look away. She was still smiling, though. Teddie still stared, long after Rise turned back down the hallway with a crafty little smirk on her face, and Yosuke felt like his face was going to burn off, with how red it was. Of all the nights for Jude to fall asleep in his bed, it had to be the one where the ace detective, the perceptive idol and the nosiest bear of all time were at their place. _Probably payback for all the hell I gave them back in high school,_ he thought to himself, focusing too hard on his plate and trying to ignore Teddie's intense gaze.

With his pancakes half-finished on his plate, he stood up. "I... think I'm going to go take a shower before the others get here." Anything to get away from the nosy-bodies.

He passed by Jude in the hallway, noting the completely embarrassed look on his face. Yeah. Rise had definitely given him the third degree. Possibly even the fourth degree, by the way she was grinning wildly as she walked down the hall in front of him. But why was she grinning like that? Nothing had happened, right? So... she had no reason to look so smug. Yosuke gave Jude an apologetic look. He'd make a point to actually apologize later.

* * *

><p>Fortunately, any outward awkwardness dissipated before the others got there. God, if <em>they<em> caught wind of this? He'd never hear the end. Yeah, when he left the bathroom and let Jude take his turn, he got another third degree of questioning—("you're _sure_ nothing happened?" "Nothing happened, Rise..." "Well, you're both _acting_ like something happened." "Maybe that's because you won't leave us alone about it!")—and finally the topic slowed a little bit. Thankfully, the line of questioning ended completely, shortly after that.

Before too long, there was a soft knock on the door, followed by a significantly louder voice.

"Yukiko, they're not going to hear you if you knock softly like that!" There wasn't a bit of malice in Chie's voice, and the laugh that followed was lighthearted and good natured. "You gotta put some feeling into it!" She knocked louder, rhythmically and eagerly.

Yukiko laughed a little bit from the other side of the door. "Right! Got it!" she said eagerly, then repeated the rhythmic knock, in spite of the fact that Yosuke was already on his way to the door. Everyone in the room laughed.

Before Yosuke reached the door, he heard Kanji protesting and stopped in his tracks. Sometimes hearing things like this was better than any greeting. "You didn't need to do it after her, Yukiko-senpai," he teased. High school was over, and he still insisted on calling them all senpai. It was both nice, and weird, all at the same time.

As much as he wanted to allow the conversation to devolve a little further, because everyone was definitely laughing, he pulled the door open and gave the three visitors an amused arched eyebrow. "What are you guys, the Three Stooges?" he asked in lieu of a traditional greeting. "I half-expected to come out here and find you all hitting each other over the head with inflatable hammers." But as he finished talking, he stepped out of the way so they could come into the apartment.

The girls both laughed, but Kanji had a slightly unimpressed expression on his face, likely at being called a Stooge. Yosuke was about to turn and walk into the room when he felt Yukiko's arms wrap around him in an eager hug. "It's good to see you, Yosuke-kun," she said softly.

Chie echoed her sentiments, and hugged him right after Yukiko finished. "This place is a lot cleaner than I expected." Her frank comments hadn't changed, and honestly, Yosuke was glad for that. "I thought with you here, Jude would be at his limit cleaning, and it'd be a disaster area." Chie would always be Chie.

It wasn't like they didn't see each other often. Yosuke was in Inaba almost every day. But when they _did_ see each other, it was always short. Yosuke had some work errand to do, or Yukiko was just stopping by to get some extra ingredients for dinner at the inn. Chie would come by to get ingredients for Yukiko to practice cooking, too; but they were never really together for long enough to catch up. The last time he'd really spent any extended period of time with them was at last year's summer festival, so it was definitely good to see them now. Even with the teasing and scathing comments from Chie.

Yosuke laughed a little bit. "I help clean sometimes too, you know."

With a laugh from behind Chie, Kanji extended his hand for one of those awkward man-hugs. "Bet the only reason it's so clean is because they knew they were having company." He crossed his arms after the man-hug broke and looked over at the couch. "Bet if you look under the couch, you'll find underwear and all the magazines they don't want you to see."

That was all Teddie needed to hear. He was on his feet, laying flat on his stomach on the floor, greeting hugs completely forgotten in the face of potentially nosing into his friends' privacy. "Aw, Kanji!" he called from the floor. "You got me all excited for nothing! There's no magazines, no pictures... no _bear_ bottoms of any kind down here! It's totally clean!" he said desolately.

From the other side of the living room, Jude's voice came clearly as he returned from his shower. "Boy, I sure picked an interesting time to come back into the conversation..." He stood wide-eyed, looking down at where Teddie lay on the floor.

"Jude!" Chie called excitedly, and bounded up to Jude to hug him just as tightly as she'd hugged Yosuke.

As Yukiko hugged him, after he said his hello to her, he looked around the room. "Do I even want to know what you were talking about before I came back out here? And why Teddie is apparently looking for bare bottoms under the couch?" he asked.

Yukiko giggled and shook her head no. "The less you ask in this case, the better, I think. Let's just say that Kanji-kun was putting ideas in his head, and you know how Teddie is with ideas..." She wasted no time going to the rest of the group and greeting them, too.

"Sorry 'bout that," Kanji said with a wry grin on his face that said he wasn't sorry in the slightest. He walked up to Jude and gave him a handshake-hug, too, then walked around the rest of the room.

Yosuke noticed, with both concern and slight amusement, exactly how awkward Kanji's greeting with Naoto was. They said their hellos, and he did hug her, but the awkwardness seemed just as strong as it was in high school. Kanji stared at Naoto in wide-eyed wonder, which was understandable, considering this was a very far cry from the Naoto he probably remembered, physically. Honestly, Yosuke couldn't remember the last time the two of them were at an event like this together. Had he seen her at all since they'd graduated last year? It was a distinct possibility that he hadn't, so seeing her looking more feminine? Yeah, it was probably a surprise. Shockingly, though, he managed to keep himself together enough to say hello.

Finally, the whole group of them was together. This... yeah, this was nice. Busy, and very exciting, but nice.

* * *

><p>By lunchtime, things had settled down considerably. Everyone was settled into the apartment now, and they'd all fallen back into easy, casual conversation. Rise was gushing to Yukiko about how pretty she'd look in some of the clothes that she bought, and somehow, Chie had challenged Kanji and Teddie to a beef bowl eating contest at Aiya when they got back to Inaba, and now they were trash talking. Naoto was in the kitchen, helping Jude put lunch together for the group. Yosuke, for his part, had been floating between groups, enjoying the better parts of each conversation; really just enjoying having everyone together.<p>

As soon as Jude and Naoto came back into the living room and set the food in front of them, Chie took it upon herself to put the whole room into an emotional whiplash, though. "So, did you guys hear?" her voice filled the room and everyone jumped to attention. The expression on her face said that she'd been about to burst. Like she'd wanted to bring this up since she stepped into the door and holding it in for another second would kill her.

"About?" Yosuke asked, arching an eyebrow.

Naoto looked like she knew what was coming, which was slightly odd, but she didn't say anything. Instead, Chie kept speaking. "Back in Inaba, people have been saying that the Midnight Channel has been coming back on. It's weird, though." She paused for a second to grab a few pieces of tempura beef. "No one's been on it, from what I've heard,." She didn't bother to stop talking once she put a piece of food in her mouth. "It's just been static."

Yukiko nodded her head. "We heard about it yesterday afternoon, and we watched it last night." She leaned toward the table, filling a small bowl with some shrimp and rice. "We were going to call you if it came on, but..." She shook her head no. "Of course, it wasn't raining, so we wouldn't have been able to see it anyway." She bit her lower lip.

"I'd heard some rumors about it, too, though. Last month, when I was in town visiting with my grandpa," Naoto said seriously, stirring her mirin dipping sauce with her chopstick. "About people just seeing static. I checked it then, too, and it _was_ snowing, but nothing happened."

Scratching a hand through his hair, Jude took a seat next to Yosuke on the floor. "So, what... are they just rumors, then? I mean..." he shrugged his shoulders. "It's not completely out of the realm of possibility that people would just spread things like that around just for the sake of it, right?" And he was right, it wasn't.

Yosuke shrugged and spoke with a half-full mouth. "Inaba will be Inaba," he stated plainly. "When people get bored, they start rumors, right? And sometimes they recycle old rumors." At least, that was how it had been in his experience. Still, it was a little strange to be hearing about it again with radio silence for so long.

Naoto shrugged her shoulders and finished chewing and swallowing. "I honestly don't know," she answered. "It's hard to say without having seen it myself. And there's still so much about the Midnight Channel in general that we don't understand, right?"

At that, Rise gave an earnest nod. "Like where it even came from. And how personas automatically meant that we could enter." She took a sip of her drink and sighed.

It was funny. He hadn't really thought too much about that question since the case had closed. Most of his thoughts concerning the case three years ago were about the fighting. About how he missed it, and how sometimes he wished that he could just go back into the TV and blow off some steam. But that simple statement from Rise brought all those unanswered questions right back to the forefront. There were still a _lot_ of answers they didn't know.

"It bugs me," Kanji started, "thinkin' that the TV world's still there. Like, was it there all along, even before all that shit three years ago?"

Teddie nodded. "It's always been there, yeah," he told them. Sometimes it was easy to forget that he'd actually _come_ from that world. "It probably won't go away without some kind of bear-acle." He just shrugged and continued shoveling food into his mouth.

The silence that filled the room as soon as Teddie finished speaking was kind of heavy. Yosuke had to admit, he was tempted to suggest that they just charge into the TV, look around and see if there was anything going on. It wasn't like they couldn't get right back out if things went wrong, right? But the group of them storming into Junes like that just because of a rumor spreading around Inaba that had no real basis... it didn't make a lot of sense, did it? _Maybe I'm more mature than I thought,_ he thought with an inward chuckle. Because two years ago, there would have been absolutely nothing that could have stopped him.

Yosuke sighed through a mouthful of fried rice. "I guess the most we can do now is just pay attention. Now that we all know that it's a possibility..." he turned to look at Naoto, who nodded her agreement. A part of him wondered if she'd looked into it at all herself.

His attention turned to Jude, who flashed him a halfhearted smile. Jude knew, more than the rest of them, how much Yosuke was tamping down his instinct. After all, Jude was the one who heard about all of his wistful memories about fighting inside of the TV. Admittedly, even with such little information, this felt kind of like the beginning of something. The information seemed baseless at this point, but something in the pit of Yosuke's gut told him that this wasn't the last they'd hear about it.


End file.
